Straightforward examination of unspoken crimes

THE PERVASIVE and insidious nature of sexual exploitation in the film business is laid bare in this admirably austere drama.

Julia Garner (Ozark) stars as Jane, the lowest tier assistant to a New York-based producer, who is never seen but clearly modelled on disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Throughout what initially appears to be a mundane workday, we hear Jane’s boss spit verbal abuse at her over the phone when he is unsatisfied with how she placates his wife. Jane also facilitates a parade of young aspiring starlets entering his office for ominous “meetings”.

Her duties include escorting one of these young women, fresh from a small town, to a hotel room, on the boss’ instruction. One especially chilling moment sees a male assistant, who is her superior, reassure Jane that she shouldn’t worry about the boss as she’s “not his type”.

This is a mostly quiet film where no explicitly criminal activity is portrayed, but the reprehensibility of the depicted behaviour is palpable.

It makes a strong case for the banality of evil, especially during the film’s climax of sorts, which is comprised of a sitdown Jane requests with the company’s HR manager. The corporate lackey is played with icky conviction by Succession’s Matthew

Macfadyen (whose name is on the poster, but only appears in this one

scene), and the way he blandly dismantles Jane’s legitimate concerns rings painfully true.

The film’s surprising power comes from how there is no one tangible moment that Jane can point to, which serves to highlight how failures of all types of accountability have allowed such activities to go unchecked by so many for so long.

Arguably the first movie to tackle the #Metoo movement head-on, the eye-opening sense of unease generated by The Assistant only grows after the credits roll. —

Dominic Corry